Flashes: May 30, 1997

ACCIDENT-PRONE Call it the Godzilla effect. According to Hollywood, major metropolitan areas are once again an endangered species. Viewers have already watched the City of Angels go to the devil in Volcano. In The Lost World, dinosaurs run amuck — again — and trample San Diego. And in Con Air, opening June 6, a group of convicts take over a prisoner-transport plane and eviscerate Las Vegas' famed Strip. But does getting demolished on screen ruin a city's reputation? Nah. In fact, in San Diego, locals hope World will boost tourism. ''We're kind of playing off of it,'' says San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau spokeswoman Laurie Allison. ''We're opening up a major dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum.'' In keeping with the city-bashing trend, shooting has begun on a 1998 summer blockbuster. The unlucky metropolis will be New York. And the perpetrator? The guy who started it all, Godzilla.